Traffic Lights On Food

[Mica P]

Hi

I've been buying foods that are all green on the traffic light system

Is this right ? If something is showing green eg French Fries are 11.8g - they are ok to have ?

I do not test - only meds

Many thanks

 

[Leadinglights]

The traffic light system is as much use as a chocolate teapot for anybody who is diabetic as it shows sugars rather than Total carbohydrates which are the problem for Type 2 folk
Things can be 'green' because they are low sugar but are still high carbohydrate so if you are using that as a guide you will most likely be not making the best choices especially as you are not testing the effect of those foods on your blood glucose levels.
Just as an example Puffed Wheat breakfast cereal has green for sugars but still has 69.6g carbohydrate per 100g which would push most peoples blood glucose up.
Something like French fries if you are looking at the sugar per 100g at 11.8g but total carbs would be more like 40g per 100g, Not sure how there can be 11g sugar in french fries though.
The information you need to look for is the TOTAL carbohydrate per 100g which is usually in small print on the back of the packet or do an internet search for FOOD X and totals carbs to get a better idea of what foods are suitable.

 

[Dave W]

If you are aiming to reduce overall sugar intake, the traffic lights are not much use, for while they do indicate 'sugars' they do not give any indication as to carbohydrates in the food and carbs convert to sugars during digestion. To check the carbs you should look at the back of the packaging where you should find the carbs per 100g weight.

 

[Mica P]

The traffic light system is as much use as a chocolate teapot for anybody who is diabetic as it shows sugars rather than Total carbohydrates which are the problem for Type 2 folk
Things can be 'green' because they are low sugar but are still high carbohydrate so if you are using that as a guide you will most likely be not making the best choices especially as you are not testing the effect of those foods on your blood glucose levels.
Just as an example Puffed Wheat breakfast cereal has green for sugars but still has 69.6g carbohydrate per 100g which would push most peoples blood glucose up.
Something like French fries if you are looking at the sugar per 100g at 11.8g but total carbs would be more like 40g per 100g, Not sure how there can be 11g sugar in french fries though.
The information you need to look for is the TOTAL carbohydrate per 100g which is usually in small print on the back of the packet or do an internet search for FOOD X and totals carbs to get a better idea of what foods are suitable.

Oh no I've been doing it all wrong. So on the back of the crisps it says per pack is 11.9grams carbs of which 0.2 is sugar. So I would count 1 pack as 11.9 grams of carbs ?

Sorry about all the questions. I find this all very frustrating

 

[Leadinglights]

Oh no I've been doing it all wrong. So on the back of the crisps it says per pack is 11.9grams carbs of which 0.2 is sugar. So I would count 1 pack as 11.9 grams of carbs ?

Sorry about all the questions. I find this all very frustrating

Yes.
Just ignore the of sugars as they are sort of irrelevant, it is the carbs that count.

 

[trophywench]

Yep - 11.9g. There may be very little 'sugar' - but there's shedloads of carbs in spuds which does not reduce however thinly you slice it and however you cook it! Anything starchy is carbohydrate heavy - eg pasta, anything else with wheat flour eg pastry, bread, cake, biscuits ......